500+ Head-Fier

Yeah, thanks!
Bright / dark / cold / warm - it's all relative to everyone's hearing, expectation and preference. And it's always more that graphs and measurements can tell.
To me every frequency in X5 is well represented. Yes I'd call it smooth, but not dark or very warm. To my ear it is natural sounding and that's what l like.

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Yeah, if you really like the how the X5 3rd gen sounds you probably won't be as big of a fan of the Q5.

But hey, with the X5 3rd gen you are getting an entire player rather than just a DAC/amp combo for basically the same money.

500+ Head-Fier

Did you test the balanced output of the Q5? I expect it to give the same improvements as the X7ii because they use the same amp modules.

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Yes, I actually did most of my listening with the FLC8S in balanced mode. I didn't listen to the Etymotic ER4S in balanced mode because I don't have a balanced cable for that. I also alluded to listening to the 400i and modded T50RP with the Q5 - that was done with a converter from 2.5mm balanced to 4-pin XLR.

New Head-Fier

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Dec 23, 2016

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Glad to know the q5 is probably neutral even with the ak4490s! I was wondering if the q5 would be warm when they announced it would have those chips, and was hoping they tuned them to be percieved flat personally. In that case I'm curious if the 2 ak4490eq's beats even an es9028pro like in the x7ii since they still tuned them to be flat but it wouldn't have sabre glare and stuff. This could make for a really good use of the 4490's. Like chowmein83 said on the previous page he thinks they tuned the brightness of the es9028 down on the x7ii and that it seems to force it and make it seem slightly congested, but that the q5 seems to play a tad better with the 4490's tuned as a similar flat response. Not that I think the x7ii would be congested, but perhaps the q5 will be a tad better.

New Head-Fier

I should take delivery of a Centrance Bluedac soon, I'll let you know how well it drives my Alpha Dogs.

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OK, got the BlueDAC and assembled a 2.5 TRRS to XLR4 adapter cable to connect my Alpha Dogs. It drives them no problem (60-70% in high gain). Sounds really good. And given the Aeon Flow phones are easier to drive than this older model you should not have any trouble driving them. Heck, for giggles I connected them (with a 2.5TRRS to 3.5TRS adapter) to my FiiO Q1 and even that drives them without issue -- although obviously at an entirely different quality

In any case, BlueDAC is fairly OT here, I'll attempt to do a writeup later in a more appropriate thread.

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Would the q5 ever stop working with newer ios/android versions? Also what about new versions of windows? Can they always just make software updates to update the driver to work with newer versions, or does there come a point where they can't? I'm curious about this cause if it can last longer than a dap software-wise that would be a reason to get the q5 instead of x7ii.

100+ Head-Fier

Would the q5 ever stop working with newer ios/android versions? Also what about new versions of windows? Can they always just make software updates to update the driver to work with newer versions, or does there come a point where they can't? I'm curious about this cause if it can last longer than a dap software-wise that would be a reason to get the q5 instead of x7ii.

100+ Head-Fier

We are sorry to tell you that we have to postpone the market release date of the FiiO flagship Bluetooth DSD DAC & Amp Q5 until January 18th (if everything goes smoothly).

The delay is mainly caused by the Bluetooth compatibility. Please kindly check the detailed explanation / statement as follows:1. Designed as the flagship model in our DAC & Amp product line, the Q5 is expected to have high sound quality with all input methods, including Bluetooth.2. The Bluetooth IC also has an embedded DAC. In order to reduce its impact to the sound and achieve better sound quality, the Q5 is designed to bypass the Bluetooth embedded DAC while transmit the digital signal to XMOS platform directly and then to the professional DAC AK 4490. In this way, it's able to keep the data more complete and get better frequency response, THD+N, noise floor, crosstalk, etc, than other traditional Bluetooth audio devices.
What's more, the analog processing of the Bluetooth input is basically the same as that of the USB/Coaxial/Optical input, which further ensures consistent sound performance of different digital audio inputs.
However, owing to the difference of the underlying architecture and executive capability between the Bluetooth IC and XMOS, there might be problem during the data transit from the Bluetooth IC to the XMOS, which can result in no sound output when connecting to some new models of Smartphones. 3. Good news is that we've finally solved the issue through joint efforts of FiiO and the responsible persons from CSR and XMOS, but the delay is inevitable.
BTW, the Q5's firmware can be upgraded on the user's side. It can be upgraded after connecting the Q5 to the PC via the USB port at the bottom of the Q5. So if there should any unknown bugs, they can fixed by firmware upgrade in the future. Also, the Bluetooth function can be upgraded independently when connected to PC via the side USB port of the Q5. And the Bluetooth version can be upgraded from Bluetooth 4.1 to 5.0 or above in the future.
Thank you for your kind understanding. Let's expect the good news to come!